1897 – Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.

1899 – Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic.

1900 – The Battle of Spion Kop between the forces of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State and British forces during the Second Boer War resulted in a British defeat.

1904 – Ålesund Fire: the Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style.

1907 – Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.

1912 – The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.

1920 – The Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.

1937 – In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin’s regime and assassinate its leaders.

1941 – Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.

1943 – World War II: Troops of Montgomery’s 8th Army capture Tripoli in Libya from the German-Italian Panzer Army.

1943 – World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.

1943 – Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.

1943 – World War II: The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse on Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign ends.

1945 – World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.

1950 – The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

1958 – Overthrow in Venezuela of Marcos Pérez Jiménez

1960 – The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 m (35,798 feet) in the Pacific Ocean.

1963 – Guinea-Bissau War of Independence offially begins when PAIGC guerrilla fighters attacked the Portuguese army stationed in Tite.

1964 – The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.

1967 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Ivory Coast are established.

1968 – North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo (AGER-2), claiming the ship had violated their territorial waters while spying.

1973 – President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.

1973 – A volcanic eruption devastates Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar chain of islands off the south coast of Iceland.

1997 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.

1997 – Antonis Daglis, a 23-year-old Greek truck driver is sentenced to thirteen consecutive life sentences, plus 25 years for the serial slayings of three women and the attempted murder of six others.

2002 – “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh returns to the United States in FBI custody.